


Cold

by TeaRoses



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Community: hc_bingo, F/F, Hurt/Comfort, not au but i pretty much ignore sokka, sorry sokka
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-22
Updated: 2017-06-22
Packaged: 2018-11-17 09:00:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 937
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11272227
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TeaRoses/pseuds/TeaRoses
Summary: Katara reacts strongly when she sees someone following Yue.  Written for hurt/comfort bingo for the prompt "Stalkers."





	Cold

Katara needed cold right now. And ice. And anything that would keep her from thinking about how pretty Yue was. It didn't matter; they were only staying for a few days at most and Katara would not have time to get to know anyone. And Yue was a princess, not someone who would want to make friends with a rough girl who didn't even show proper respect to her elders. Not that Yue seemed snobbish. She seemed like a very kind and natural person. But thinking about that was not going to help, so Katara tried to think instead about how angry she was that the Northern Water Tribe elevated men so far above women. Why couldn't women bend water in the same way men did? Why had no one spoken up in all this time? Maybe someone had, or maybe everyone was too afraid. The men held the power. Katara wondered what the Southern Water Tribe would have been like if there were enough men left to make up a tribe, and more waterbenders as well. Maybe they would have gone down the same path. But she couldn't imagine being told that she must be a healer and nothing else.

She continued down the path through the snow, the ice shining in the moonlight and guiding her way. Up ahead she saw a flash of white hair. An elder? No, it was Yue. Maybe she needed cold and ice too. Katara slowed down. She didn't want to talk to Yue right now. Katara didn't have the gift of a princess's speech, and she would probably only say something embarrassing while looking earnestly into Yue's eyes.

Now there was another figure coming toward the path. He seemed to be hiding behind snowdrifts, trying to make sure no one ahead on the path could see him. But the only person ahead of him was Yue. Was someone following Yue? This couldn't be good. Katara wondered briefly if the man could be a firebender but he was dressed in a waterbender's clothing and seemed to move naturally in it. This was someone from Yue's tribe, but why was he stalking her?

Katara continued on the path, hurrying now to catch up with the man. He must have heard her, because he broke into a run. Yue had turned around now. Was she frightened? Katara's heart pounded. There was snow here, and she could bend. She threw up a wall of ice in front of Yue's stalker and dropped some more ice on his head for good measure. He fell to the ground. Katara watched as Yue walked around the ice wall and saw the man who had been following her. As Katara approached she could hear Yue yelling.

"What were you doing following me? I was only taking a walk!"

"I can do whatever I need to do," the other person said in a young man's voice. "You'll be my wife soon."

Katara stopped a few feet away from them, her eyes widening with shock. Yue was engaged? That thought was so troubling that she barely acknowledged the problem that she had just knocked down a princess's fiance, with waterbending yet.

The young man stood up glaring at Katara. "Turn around and leave, and mind your own business, or I'll tell Pakku you've been fighting with me." 

"You leave!" Yue had tears in her eyes but her voice was steely. "Or I'll tell my father you've been following me and frightening me."

He seemed to consider the situation only briefly before running away. Katara saw Yue's tears and reached out to her. Yue embraced her.

"He scared me," said Yue into the fur of Katara's parka. "I couldn't tell him that but he did." She was trembling. With fear, Katara thought, but maybe with anger too.

Yue lifted her head and looked into Katara's eyes. "Hahn thinks I don't really want to marry him," she said.

"So he follows you?" said Katara with contempt.

"It's true though. I really don't want to marry him. I hate the way he never leaves me alone."

"Then don't!" said Katara in an impassioned voice. "You can tell them that can't you?"

"It would be a huge scandal. It's not worth it," Yue replied.

"It's better to be married to someone you don't even like than to create a huge scandal?"

"I like Hahn sometimes. Or I used to at least." Yue sighed. Katara could tell that she was still crying.

"I know!" she said. "You can come with us!"

"They'd never let me," said Yue softly.

"Then don't tell them!" said Katara. "We'll sneak away tonight. They'll never find us if we get a good head start."

"And I wouldn't have to marry Hahn," said Yue.

"And you wouldn't have to do whatever the men tell you!"

"And I could help the new Avatar."

"Yes!"

"And defeat the fire nation."

"Yes!" shouted Katara, pulling back slightly from Yue and grinning.

They stood like that for a few minutes, laughing together. Finally Yue said, "You know I can't really go with you, don't you?"

"Yes," said Katara sadly.

"I could never leave my people."

"I know."

"But someday I'll look back on this and I'll pretend I did go, and had a whole different life without Hahn," said Yue. "That will be something." She wasn't laughing anymore.

"Let's not go back yet," said Yue.

"No," said Katara, pulling Yue close. "Let's not go back yet."

They stood silently together in the cold, and Katara realized that they had very different battles. She stroked Yue's hair and they stood together, silent in the cold.


End file.
